Theories in Context

Background is in higher education and working

with the non-
non-profit sector

The people I work with are motivated through
passion

Some are highly intelligent – they ask why a lot

Some are still developing (college students don’t
develop the frontal lobe, where moral reasoning
resides, until age 25)

Therefore, my lens on these theories and
leadership concepts are framed within this context
A Brief History of Leadership
Theory

First a look at different theories

Examining the context of today

New and emergent ideas on leadership
which aren’t at the “theory” stage
Trait Leadership

Leadership is a function of biology – you’re
born with it.

Leadership is developing what you’re born
with.

Leadership is building on your strengths.
Situational Leadership

Leadership is matching different styles to
different situations.

Leadership is a function of the market.

Leadership is a function of matching the
resources of the group with the resources of
the leader.
Organizational Leadership

Leadership is a function of position and role
responsibility.

Leadership is developing the skills to move
up through the hierarchy.

Leadership is understanding an
organization’s values and culture.
Power As Leadership

Leadership is power.

Leadership is making a difference.

Leadership is effective use of power to make a
difference.

Leadership is the capacity to get things done.

Leadership is challenging others to do their work
(empowerment).

Leadership is community organization.
Visionary Leadership

Leadership is vision – looking at trends and
patterns for future direction.

Leadership is doing what has never been done
before.

Leadership is clarifying trends and patterns for
future direction.

Leadership is seeing the problems in the present
and being able to imagine a different future
Social Ethics Leadership (1)

Leadership is clarifying trends and patterns
and bringing them ethical scrutiny for future
direction.

Leadership is assessed vision that enhances
the human community.

Leadership involves dialogue with
followers rather than dictating to them.
Social Ethics Leadership (2)

Leadership raises the question: leadership toward
what?

Leadership examines why things should be done
as well as what is to be done and how to do it.

Leadership goes beyond accepting – tolerance is
not enough.

James MacGreggor Burns Leadership

 The Moral Dimension of
Leadership
People who transgress our moral standards:
 The “bad king” … the ruler who inflicts cruelty on
his own subjects.
 Leaders who may treat their own followers well
but encourage them to do evil things to others.
 Leaders who reach for and use as a source of
motivation, our bigotry, our capacity to hate, our
desire for revenge, our fear and paranoia, our
superstitions.
 The Moral Dimension of
Leadership
 Leaders who diminish their followers,
rendering them dependent and childlike.
 Leaders who destroy the processes that
civilized peoples have created over the
centuries to preserve freedom, justice, and
human dignity.

 John Gardner On Leadership

Reflective Leadership

Leadership is all (traits, situations, power,
vision, social ethics) and more.

A leader must be grasped.

A leader must be authentic.

Leadership is a profound engagement with
the world and human condition.
Adaptive Leadership (1)

Authority identifies the adaptive challenge,
provides diagnosis of condition, and
produces questions about problem
definition and solution.

Authority discloses external threat.
Adaptive Leadership (2)

Authority disorients current roles, or resists
pressure to orient people in new roles too quickly.

Authority exposes conflict, or lets it emerge.

Authority challenges norms, or allows them to be
challenged.

Ron Heifitz Leadership without Easy Answers

Networked Leadership

Leadership is a process that emerges from many
individuals’ actions.

Leadership is organic rather than mechanical in
nature.

New ways of relating, influencing change and
learning are required.

Allen and Cherrey Systemic Leadership:

Enriching the Meaning of our Work (2000)
The context in which Leadership is
practiced today

United Nations survey – 280 countries were
asked to identify their top problems

Politics / Power - Powerlessness

Economics - Ruthlessness
Meaninglessness
Culture - Rootless ness

Environment - Futureless ness

Adaptive Challenges

Globalization

Living within environmental limits

Transforming information into wisdom

Developing wisdom and ethics to respond
to scientific discoveries

Developing the capacity to adapt to changes
in the social ecology
Implications for Leadership

Increased diversity

Increased amount of change

Increased tensions around value differences

Increased power of relationships / interdependence

Increased complexity / requires more complex
processes

Increased requirement for learning

Increased need for long term perspective
The Purpose of Leadership in the
21st Century Is:

To create a supportive environment where people
can thrive, grow, and live in peace with one
another;

To promote harmony with nature and thereby
provide sustainability for future generations; And.

To create communities of reciprocal care and
shared responsibility – one where every person
matters and each person’s welfare and dignity is
respected and supported.
Ecological Leadership

Interdependence

Open systems and feedback loops

Cycling of resources

Adaptation
Leadership and Optimizing Energy
Questions to Ponder

What is a grandchild worth?

What are millions of grandchildren worth?

What is the worth of all their children, and
the children’s children?

And what is the worth of a beautiful, safe,
productive earth on which they all can
dwell?